Torture Fight Set Back by U.S. Failure to Prosecute, U.N. Official Says

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/world/juan-mendez-calls-for-cia-torture-prosecutions.html

Version 0 of 1.

GENEVA — The C.I.A.'s use of torture and the United States’ reluctance to punish those responsible have set back efforts to fight torture worldwide, the United Nations expert investigating such abuses said Thursday, reinforcing a United Nations human rights official’s call for those involved to be prosecuted.

“The example set by the United States on the use of torture has been a big drawback in the fight against such practice in many other countries throughout the world,” Juan E. Méndez, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture, said in a statement.

Mr. Méndez said that during his travels, many governments had cited the American use of torture as justification for their own abuses. “Many states either implicitly or explicitly tell you: ‘Why look at us? If the U.S. tortures, why can’t we do it?’ ” he said.

Mr. Méndez, who has been reporting on torture for the United Nations since 2010, commended the United States for publishing the Senate Intelligence Committee report on C.I.A. torture and “fulfilling the obligations of the United States with respect to the truth.” The Bush administration, he said, “aggressively and repeatedly rejected the principles of transparency and accountability and maintains the pattern of denial and defense.”

But Mr. Méndez stressed that releasing the report was only the first step in fulfilling the United States’ obligations under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which requires the investigation and prosecution of those who were responsible for ordering, planning or implementing the C.I.A. torture program.

“As a nation that has publicly affirmed its belief that respect for truth advances respect for the rule of law, and as a nation that frequently calls for transparency and accountability in other countries, the United States must rise to meet the standards it has set both for itself and for others,” he said.

President Obama, while acknowledging that the C.I.A.'s interrogation techniques were “wrong,” has steered clear of committing the administration to prosecuting those involved.

Mr. Méndez’s statement followed a call this week by the United Nations’ human rights chief, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al Hussein, urging full accountability for those involved in the C.I.A. torture.

“In all countries,” Mr. Zeid said, “if someone commits murder, they are prosecuted and jailed. If they commit rape or armed robbery, they are prosecuted and jailed. If they order, enable or commit torture — recognized as a serious international crime — they cannot simply be granted impunity because of political expediency.”

The convention is “crystal clear,” he said, and “lets no one off the hook — neither the torturers themselves, nor the policy makers, nor the public officials who define the policy or give the orders.”

Both statements come less than a month after senior American officials faced criticism from a United Nations panel monitoring compliance with the anti-torture treaty. It said the Obama administration had failed to properly investigate torture in the C.I.A.'s secret detention facilities or to punish those responsible, including “persons in positions of command and those who provided legal cover to torture.”